According the the latest In-Stat market study, 2008 has brought continuation of trends that have developed over the last few years -- the rapid rise of HDMI and the slow decline of DVI.

Over 100 million DVI-enabled devices shipped in 2007, most in the PC space. High-end consumer desktops, aftermarket graphics cards and LCD PC monitors comprise the lion's share of the DVI market. However, both DVI and new entrant DisplayPort are encroaching on DVI's space resulting in long-term decline.

The primary driver of HDMI's success is the Consumer Electronics (CE) segment, where HDMI was instantly successful upon its 2003 launch. In 2007, HDMI ports were found in over 90 percent of the digital televisions (DTV) shipped worldwide, the greatest volume for HDMI in any product.

The rapid escalation of HDMI in all types of DVD players and recorders is directly related to HDMI's success in DTVs. Audio Visual (AV) receivers have rapidly increased adoption of HDMI over the past year, not surprising given that product's central role in the CE cluster.

Even Pay-TV set-top boxes, which are generally slow to adopt new interfaces, are seeing increased penetration of HDMI.

In the near future, the interesting CE products to watch will be portable electronic devices, including camcorders, digital still cameras, and portable media players (PMPs). The interest of those products' vendors is being piqued by the introduction of smaller HDMI connectors, specifically the newly developed Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL).

Despite HDMI's success, consumer recognition of the technology is still relatively low several countries. In-Stat online consumer research done in the U.S., UK, Germany, France, Japan and Korea queried consumers on their familiarity with HDMI technology.

The result, U.S. and UK consumers are the most familiar with HDMI, while Korean consumers are the least familiar. Even in the U.S. and UK though, less than a quarter of respondents were extremely or very familiar with HDMI.